Robotics project WALL-ET – a German and Korean cooperation
Activities in a warehouse are often unergonomic, physically demanding and monotonous. Robots with cognitive abilities can support people in their work if they are able to recognize their environment, the situation and the human intention to act. Such intelligent robotic systems could also be used in everyday life, in particular, to assist physically handicapped people.
In the “2+2 Project” WALL-ET, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), German and Korean partners from research and industry are working on a social transport robot that can support people in their work in a warehouse or in everyday shopping with the help of cognitive skills. WALL-ET stands for “Warehouse Autonomous Lean Logistics Entity for Transportation”. The robotic platform itself is being developed and set up by the Korean research partner KIMM (Korean Institute of Machinery & Materials). Together with the Korean Institute of Technology Europe (KIST Europe) based in Saarbrücken, DFKI will provide the necessary intelligence for the system, e.g. software modules for voice interaction, multimodal dialog as well as activity and intention recognition.
The developed platform will be tested in Germany in cooperation with Globus SB-Warenhaus Holding. The application-oriented Innovative Retail Laboratory (IRL) jointly operated in St. Wendel by the founding partners Globus, Saarland University and DFKI, offers the ideal test environment. Through the cooperation with Globus, interested supermarket customers can also experience the latest innovations. On the Korean side, the developed robot system will be tested by the stationary manufacturer Dong-A in the warehouse in Daejeon.
Project partners:
- Korea Institute of Science and Technology Europe, KIST Europe (consortium leader)
- German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH, DFKI
- Globus SB-Warenhaus Holding
- Korean Institute of Machinery & Materials KIMM
- DONG-A Pencil Co.
Project volume: Total volume approx. 1 Mio. €, on the German side approx. 500.000 €
Project duration: 01.04.2019 – 31.03.2022
Source: Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) Saarbrücken (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence )
